How much sleep do you need after 35 years?

Sleep is a topic that scientists are actively interested in.

A third of his life a person spends in a dream. No one doubts that the lack of a night’s rest is extremely harmful. The experiments, during which people were awake for many days, ended with the same thing: fatigue, cognitive problems, and then delusions and hallucinations.

So, everyone knows that sleep is necessary. But how much? And does the answer to this question depend on the age of the person? Recently, scientists conducted another study, and if you are over 35, then you should definitely read their findings.

How sleep changes with age

We change over the years. After 35 years, sleep becomes more superficial and less refreshing, and you sadly remember your 20s, when three or four hours were enough to go to school after a stormy party.

A team of scientists from the UK and China, led by Dr. Wei Cheng, decided to find out how much sleep should be given to those who have already exchanged their fourth decade. To do this, they collected data from a longitudinal study of 500 thousand people aged 38 to 73 years.

Participants in the study filled out questionnaires and then took cognitive tests. Including they had to talk about the duration and nature of their sleep. 8% of respondents in addition to this had an MRI of the brain and passed a genetic analysis.

Not at all eight o’clock

The result of scientific work was discouraging – he dispelled the myth about the need to sleep for eight hours. It turned out that an excess of rest is just as harmful as its lack: attention, memory, reaction speed decrease, and other brain functions suffer.

The best results in tests were shown by those who slept seven hours a night. They were also less likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, and insomnia. MRI scans showed that those who slept more or less than seven hours after age 35 showed changes in brain structure that affected areas responsible for memory and higher cognitive functions.

So if you were worried that you couldn’t get eight hours of sleep, then you don’t have to worry anymore: there is no need for this.